freeloading free-for-all on Skins's island?

[GOBUCKS]

Well now, I've suddenly had sort of an awakening about our guest here.

And so I'm now withholding judgement; she may have a good and giving heart, but alas she probably doesn't have a fat pocketbook.

Well, she has no marketable skill.

She wasted years of education on degrees in South American feminism or some such nonsense.

And somewhere along the line she developed a burning hatred for men.

Altogether, not a formula for prosperity.

A middle-aged, physically unattractive woman, with a useless education, no man to provide for her, and no likelihood of ever attracting one, is unlikely to be living very high on the hog unless there's an inheritance involved.

She's just another DUmp loser.

[franksolich]

Well, originally I'd thought she'd be a good catch for a fortune-hunting "metrosexual" man--if he could overlook those, uh, things hovering above her midriff as if a canopy or marquee, and her politics--given how well-paid desk-sitting (as compared with non-desk-sitting) governmental employees are.

But despite her job title, her housing situation betrays a socio-economic status closer to franksolich than to Skippy.

[anti-spelunker]

Well, originally I'd thought she'd be a good catch for a fortune-hunting "metrosexual" man--if he could overlook those, uh, things hovering above her midriff as if a canopy or marquee, and her politics--given how well-paid desk-sitting (as compared with non-desk-sitting) governmental employees are.

But despite her job title, her housing situation betrays a socio-economic status closer to franksolich than to Skippy.

Government employee living high off the hog?  You follow too many right-wing news sources.  Firstly, university doesn't qualify as a govt. entity, and it didn't close when the state shut down over budget issues.  It gets only 17% of its funding from the state.  More comes from grants than state resources.  Secondly, few university or govt employees make $200k a year.  I see salaries when I work on budgets, and the highest I've seen is about $140k for a full Professor.  I'm sure faculty in Econ and Business make more, but not in liberal arts.  The basketball coach is the highest paid employee at the university with a $2.5 million salary, three times that of the university president.  Coaches are almost always the highest paid personnel at universities.  Look at the public records for the staff and faculty at your own state universities and see what they make.  Just get over the RW propaganda about govt employees because most of it is BS.  

[Purple Sage]

Yeah, such bullshit.  My immigrant neighbor that works for the IRS made $150K a year pre-0.  The 0 thought she didn't make enough and doubled her salary.  She flies to DC every Sunday night and flies back home every Thursday night.  Too much trouble for her husband to shuttle her back and forth from the airport; thus she rents a car every weekend.  Not sure if she or we pay for the car, but she's doing very well as a DC worker.  So well that her 54 year old husband does not have to work leaving him time to walk around the neighborhood touting "a little socialism never hurt anybody."

[franksolich]

Yeah, such bullshit.  My immigrant neighbor that works for the IRS made $150K a year pre-0.  The 0 thought she didn't make enough and doubled her salary.  She flies to DC every Sunday night and flies back home every Thursday night.  Too much trouble for her husband to shuttle her back and forth from the airport; thus she rents a car every weekend.  Not sure if she or we pay for the car, but she's doing very well as a DC worker.  So well that her 54 year old husband does not have to work leaving him time to walk around the neighborhood touting "a little socialism never hurt anybody."

Well, no matter how much, or how little, governmental employees--the desk-sitting ones, not the non-desk-sitting ones--are paid, it's obviously too much if they're better off than those in private employment who pay the taxes to pay the salaries of bureaucrats.

A very long time ago, governmental employees were poorly-paid and poorly-benefited, but they enjoyed greater job security than those in private employment. 

That's changed however the past several decades; they still enjoy greater job security, and have since become better paid and better benefited than those in the private sector.

Government "service" is no longer a sacrifice; in fact, it's rather lucrative.

I think it should be a law that no governmental employee should be better off than the "average" employee in private service who after all's footing the bill.

[Gern]

Has he so quickly forgotten the transgressions of Lord Marblehead?

[anti-spelunker]

Well, no matter how much, or how little, governmental employees--the desk-sitting ones, not the non-desk-sitting ones--are paid, it's obviously too much if they're better off than those in private employment who pay the taxes to pay the salaries of bureaucrats.

A very long time ago, governmental employees were poorly-paid and poorly-benefited, but they enjoyed greater job security than those in private employment.  

That's changed however the past several decades; they still enjoy greater job security, and have since become better paid and better benefited than those in the private sector.

Government "service" is no longer a sacrifice; in fact, it's rather lucrative.

I think it should be a law that no governmental employee should be better off than the "average" employee in private service who after all's footing the bill.

Because during a time of state deficits and cuts in state budgets, legislators naturally decided to give public employees massive pay raises.  
I will again reiterate the point that I am not a government employee.  The University is not a government entity, and my salary doesn't even come out of the budget.  Not a penny of state resources goes to pay me.  Mine is a revenue generating position.  More importantly, however, rather than believing what you hear on your fave entertainment shows that pose as news, look into the matter yourself.  As a state taxpayer in Nebraska, you have access to information on the salaries of public employees.   My suspicion is that a few are grossly overpaid, most make a middling income, and some are paid crap wages.  

Before you get yourselves too exercised with what I'm doing with my time, I took a vacation day today, as I took a personal day on Tuesday for reasons that don't concern anyone here. 

[obumazombie]

WTH is a "crap wage" ? It certainly isn't minimum wage, because libs are all telling us that minimum wage isn't a "living wage". Therefore without the least amount of logical deduction the least paid government worker cannot possibly be making a "crap wage".
Do libs ever think through their pronouncements before excreting them ?

[franksolich]

Now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

I'm intimately acquainted with the pay scales for state employees in Nebraska; I used to be one myself.

And you're right, it's all public information.

Secretaries, receptionists, and file clerks working for the state of Nebraska are paid circa $500-1000 a month more than secretaries, receptionists, and file clerks working for private companies (such as for insurance companies and banks specifically).

Not only that, but those working for the state of Nebraska have fringe benefits that are out of this world.

Years and years and years ago, I was an accountant for the Department of Health; one of those desk-sitting haemorrhoid-encouraging positions with little or no responsibilities other than watching money flow in and out.

One of my older brothers was a high school science teacher elsewhere in Nebraska, with more education than I had.

I, a single person, no dependents, made $400 a month more than he, a married man with three children, did.  I was in Fat City; I dunno how he managed.  He did, but it must've been hard.

(I quit the job after three and a half years because governmental employment is not good for the "handicapped;" reasons unrelated to pay and benefits).

When it comes to pay, benefits, and job security, desk-sitting governmental bureaucrats have nothing to complain about (after all, it's the firemen, the cops, the teachers, who are let go first, while the dead wood downtown keeps their jobs).

I don't think for example your pal Skippy has a damned thing to worry about, no matter how dreadful the fiscal crisis in California gets.  He's dead wood in an office somewhere, and with connections.  Every last cop, fireman, and teacher in California's going to be laid off long before his job is threatened.

As a university employee, you are in fact a governmental employee.  A public university is an agency of government; it's not a privately-owned grocery store or funeral home that has to make a profit to survive (and to pay taxes; no profits, no taxes).

You may be in a position that is fee- or revenue-financed, but money within a governmental agency is fungible; if there's a shortfall somewhere, someone finds money somewhere else in the budget, and you get paid.  

[anti-spelunker]

Frank, if I am a government employee, which government employs me?  The state of Minnesota does not recognize me as a state employee.  The federal government does not recognize me as a federal employee.  There is a shifting reality of higher education.  As legislatures increasing cut funding, universities find other means of financial support (typically tuition hikes), become less dependent on state funding and therefore less beholden to legislatures.  The last figures I saw indicated the state of MN provided the university with 17% of its funding. (That may have gone up a bit under Governor Dayton and a now Democratically controlled legislature).  If that number continues to diminish, there will be a point at which the land grant university is no longer a state university at all. 

[Carl]

Frank, if I am a government employee, which government employs me?  The state of Minnesota does not recognize me as a state employee.  The federal government does not recognize me as a federal employee.  There is a shifting reality of higher education.  As legislatures increasing cut funding, universities find other means of financial support (typically tuition hikes), become less dependent on state funding and therefore less beholden to legislatures.  The last figures I saw indicated the state of MN provided the university with 17% of its funding. (That may have gone up a bit under Governor Dayton and a now Democratically controlled legislature).  If that number continues to diminish, there will be a point at which the land grant university is no longer a state university at all. 

A simple question...what provides the resources to pay your salary?